Sherlock actor 'had to go Scandi'

The Killing star Lars Mikkelsen had to be made to speak with a Scandinavian accent after he turned up on the set of Sherlock speaking like an East Ender.

The actor, who plays evil blackmailer Charles Augustus Magnussen in the last episode of the new series, picked up the cockney accent while making a film in the capital.

Speaking at a screening of the episode at Bafta HQ in central London, the Danish actor said the show's producer Sue Vertue ordered him to speak like a Scandinavian.

He said: "So I picked up on the East End accent going 'innit' and stuff like that and Sue was sort of casting a Scandi and said 'No you can't talk like that' so we had to Scandify a bit so we did a bit of Danish accent which disappeared more and more. We had to do that. Make it Scandi."

The episode, called His Final Vow, is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's original story The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton about a blackmailer who extorts money from wealthy nobles.